my world

I live in a dream world, maybe a cartoon. It's so rich, so bright, so full, so big that it's hard to document.

I saw a duck beating up on a dog a few weeks ago.

I worked with folks to host a fishermen's exchange-- bringing together fishermen from other parts of the Caribeean to meet the guys I work with. My guys had never met other fishermen. I had yet to recognize how much of the world my newly-aquired (aquiring) Spanish opens to me.

I was a superhero. I helped with a coral gardening project. A successful attempt to keep an endagered coral alive. I felt like a superhero- fighting against the current to plant little coral cuttings into the dead reef.

My hammock is used often.

My house is always filled with small children bringing me gifts of plants for my backyard, a sour orange to eat or juice their mom made.

Somehow I am gaining professional experience here too. Between the hammock & the beach, I write grants and help negotiate between a fishers community and a multi-billion dollar company.

I share my day-to-day with my best friend and love of my life. We learn Spanish together, pop homemade popcorn, cook banana pancakes, explore and recall what life was like with a 40 hour work week.

I paint murals. I dug deep and found my inner artist. Ok, actually, I coordinate. The community paints. But I still had to overcome a crazy fear of art and paint.

A grocery store line can take 30 minutes because for fun, the cashier examines everything.

I deal in a currency (pesos) that I'm still not used to. I flip out at a $1000 grocery bill (USD$30)

My friends are named Chito and Reyito. Chito looks a lot like a street thug ... bling'd out and pants low with a cool motorcycle, but he's my best Dominican friend.

Avocadoes are the size of ... I don't know ... they're huge. And cheap. And I eat them a lot.

Ya.